Definition of paraphilia
The scientific term "paraphilia" (from the Greek παρά - beyond - φιλία - love) defines the set of sexual behaviors that have nothing to do with the canonical sexual act of reproduction: people with paraphilia who undergo psychotherapy to treat this disorder, they use expressions such as "fantasies", "impulses", "perversions" or "sexual deviations", terminology that gives an "immediate idea of the severity and abnormality of the disorder.
Features
Patients with paraphilia are subjects who depend on a sexual impulse that is hardly accepted by "healthy" people; the disconcerting fact is that paraphilia, often times, is not tolerated even by the very person in which it occurs.
Paraphilia is an almost exclusively male disease, but some women have also experienced the same symptoms.
Patients suffering from extreme paraphilia could also be called into question by the Justice: as we will see later, paraphilias are often related to other psycho-sexual disorders, which can also cause harm to other people (pedophilia is the most obvious example ).
Factors such as pleasure, sexual satisfaction and excitement, taken to the extreme, are found in all subjects affected by paraphilia, although each one manifests the disease in personal, subjective ways, without following precise patterns. In the most severe cases of paraphilia , sexual pleasure seems to be the only reason it is worth living.
Paraphilic men (and some affected women) also use objects to satisfy sexual satisfaction, even in situations that prove dangerous to themselves and others.
Paraphilia can also manifest itself in other forms: in some cases, people with paraphilia have obsessive-compulsive disorders associated with loss of control and / or depression, regardless of sexual arousal / desire.
Classification
The various forms of paraphilia can be classified according to three parameters:- desired object / person: the sexual partner is only the instrument for achieving the peak of pleasure;
- action with which the disorder occurs: traditional sexual penetration is replaced with practices of another nature;
- sensory channel involved: the sense of smell, sight, touch, hearing and taste are involved in the paraphilia. In fact, sexual arousal is enhanced by the perception of odors (often unpleasant), by the "exhibitionism and" observation of other people involved in sexual acts (sight). The perversion is also given by the "extreme accentuation of some" tactile "practices , which have nothing to do with delicacy and good taste; moreover, even pronunciation or listening to vulgar terms could excite the patient with paraphilia (hearing). Last but not least, swallowing body excretions (taste) can also be a practice carried out by subjects affected by paraphilia, capable of speeding up the process that leads to the realization of the purpose (orgasm).
Diseases related to paraphilia
Paraphilia is not a disorder that manifests itself uniquely: paraphiliacs love to take every possible situation related to sex to the extreme, to try new sensations. Given the multifactorial nature of paraphilia, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders has divided paraphilia into eight exaggerated behaviors that frequently occur in sick people: fetishism (use of extra-sexual objects), exhibitionism (exposure of sexual attributes to non-consenting people), sadism (sexual arousal consisting in trying and / or provoking forms of pain to other people), frotteurism (form of paraphilia which consists in "touching" a person in a compulsive way), pedophilia (sexual arousal towards adolescents), scopophilia (sexual need to observe people engaged in sexual activities), disguise fetishism (desire and excitement in showing off clothes of the other sex) and masochism (form of paraphilia in which excitement is achieved through humiliation or pain).
Homosexuality remains enigmatic, which, until recently, was considered a paraphilic practice; following pressing opposition from Homosexual Associations, the tendency to love subjects of the same sex has been excluded from the list of forms of paraphilia.
Reflections
Sigmund Freud defined perversions "sexual activities aimed at non-genital body regions". In the present day, this definition has been re-evaluated, since if we still consider Freudian "perversion", the sexual behaviors of the vast majority of the world population should be considered "sick". But this is not the case: perhaps a small part, in each of us, has a "perverse" nature, hidden which manifests itself in a more or less accentuated way based on the person, character and environment. It certainly cannot be said. that the natural propensity to "physiological" perversion is connected to paraphilia: only when these impulses explode in an excessive, improper, sometimes violent way, can we correctly speak of paraphilic disorder. Obsessive compulsive forms that last for long periods (over 6 months ), associated with extreme fantasies (realized) on unsuspecting people, can portray a pathological picture, therefore being considered "paraphilia".
As we have seen, paraphilia is a disease in all respects, which originates in the person's mind and which could create serious consequences: in this regard, the psychologist must define a correct diagnostic framework in order to find the most suitable cure to heal. the patient from paraphilia.
